The Mentor: Makers of Modern Opera, Vol. 1, Num. 47, Serial No. 47 — Story, Setting & Ideas

Biography Over Analysis

The excerpts devote far more space to composers' life events than to their music. Verdi's entry, for instance, details his birth year (1813), his longevity (88 years), and the number of his operas (twenty-nine), but offers only general statements about his style—such as that his conception of melody "changed as his artistic nature grew and ripened." Massenet's section recounts his poverty, his service in the Franco-Prussian War, and his professorship at the Paris Conservatory, yet describes his music merely as "weak and sugary" and "superficially clever." Puccini is introduced as "named by the great Verdi as his probable successor," with his lineage traced back to his great-great-grandfather. This biographical focus suggests that the intended audience was general readers seeking introductions to composers' lives rather than detailed musical analysis.

National Schools as Organizing Principle

Krehbiel structures his narrative around the emergence of distinct national operatic schools. He traces opera's origin to a Florentine group that sought to revive Greek drama, then describes how translations of Italian librettos led to "recognition of the incongruity between Italian music and the French, German, and English languages," prompting each nation to develop its own idiom. The text explicitly identifies "the three great schools of operatic composers" whose latter-day representatives are considered. This framework elevates Verdi and Wagner as twin points of departure, born in the same year (1813), and positions later figures like Massenet and Puccini as heirs to these national traditions. The catalog subject "Composers" thus understates the text's active construction of a historical narrative.

Selective Coverage and Omissions

Despite the title's promise of "Makers of Modern Opera," the excerpts cover only a handful of composers in depth. The Mentor gravures list Verdi, Massenet, Puccini, Strauss, Gounod, and Humperdinck, but the text itself focuses primarily on Verdi, with substantial sections on Donizetti, Rossini, Massenet, and Puccini. Wagner is mentioned as a counterpart to Verdi but receives no dedicated excerpt in the provided material. The treatment of Massenet includes critical remarks—his style called "weak and sugary"—while Verdi is praised for never disavowing "the native genius of his people." This uneven coverage suggests that the work is not a comprehensive survey but a selective introduction, shaped by Krehbiel's critical judgments and the constraints of the Mentor series' format.

Readers should approach this text as a period piece that reflects early 20th-century music criticism and popular education. Krehbiel's biographical emphasis and national-school framework offer insight into how opera history was presented to a general audience a century ago. The excerpts provide a useful starting point for understanding the reputations of these composers at the time, but they do not substitute for deeper musical analysis or more recent scholarship.

I keep circling back to how Krehbiel framed composers through their homelands, their biographies, not their notes. It reminds me of sitting with The Lion of Poland: The Story of Paderewski — A Closer Reading, where the man’s exile felt louder than any of his keyboard work. That same ache—nationhood wearing a person’s face—surfaced there, quiet and persistent.